Lawyer John M. Cicilline, brother of Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline.

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AP / Steven Senne

PROVIDENCE –– Two years ago, after lawyer John M. Cicilline wrote the City of Providence a bad check for $75,000 on behalf of a delinquent taxpayer, two city finance officials spent months trying to chase him down and get the taxes paid off, they say.

They tried repeatedly to reach Cicilline, but he didn’t return their calls.

They enlisted the chief of staff and another aide to Mayor David N. Cicilline, John’s brother, but that failed to yield results.

They told Cicilline’s director of administration, but that also proved fruitless.

Two years later, the taxes remain unpaid. The delinquency, with interest, has reached $132,000, according to city tax records.

Tax Collector Robert P. Ceprano and former Finance Director Alex Prignano described their efforts in interviews with The Journal last week, after the newspaper first reported on the $75,000 check. Following media inquiries, the mayor has ordered an outside forensic audit, and the Rhode Island State Police have been asked to investigate.

“We said, ‘We need help here –– we’re having trouble getting ahold of John,’ ” recalled Prignano. “This could be an embarrassing situation for the administration. Let’s get it resolved.”

John Simmons, the mayor’s former director of administration, confirmed that Ceprano and Prignano came to him about their unsuccessful efforts to collect the money.

Simmons, Prignano and Ceprano say that the mayor’s then-chief of staff, Christopher Bizzacco, and another aide, Rita Murphy, were also enlisted in the effort to collect the money from John Cicilline and his client.

David Cicilline said he didn’t learn about the situation until press inquiries last week. He said he then had a brief conversation with his brother in which John said that “there was nothing to that.” David Cicilline said he didn’t press his brother for a detailed explanation.

“I had just learned about it and was distressed and he assured me that there was nothing there,” said David Cicilline. “I accepted that because I am the mayor and he is my brother that this required a review so that someone objectively could look at it.”

Bizzacco, now a graduate student at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, declined to comment, citing the forensic audit. He did say that he “doesn’t recall” telling the mayor about the situation.

Murphy said in an e-mail Friday that while she would like “the opportunity to offer my perspective for your story … at this time, I need to honor the integrity of the audit and the state police review by speaking to them before I speak publicly.”

THE MATTER of Garcia Enterprises was no different from the hundreds of other tax cases that crossed Bob Ceprano’s desk.

The business, owned by Felix Nelson Garcia, operated a hardware store and auto-parts business at 577 Cranston St., in the city’s West End. Garcia was a local business leader, a member of the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce and an organizer, in the late 1990s, of a program to get guns off Providence’s inner city streets.

In 2000, the Providence Redevelopment Authority designated him as the developer of three city-owned vacant lots next to his business, at 559-571 Cranston St. In 2003, after some delays in obtaining financing to fix up the property, Garcia took possession of the lots for $1, under a city program to improve vacant land and return it to the tax rolls.

In 2005, Garcia’s brother Miguel hosted a political fundraiser for Mayor Cicilline at his Smith Street bar, Garcia’s Bar & Grille. Campaign fundraising records show that Felix Nelson Garcia contributed $300 on that date, part of $1,800 he has donated from 2002 to 2007.

David Cicilline said that he recalled the fundraiser, and might recognize Miguel Garcia if he saw him, but that he doesn’t know him or his brother, Felix.

At the time of the 2005 fundraiser, the city was suing Garcia Enterprises for $90,937 in unpaid taxes on his business inventory and equipment from 1996 to 2003. That summer, a Superior Court judge ruled in the city’s favor, ordering Garcia Enterprises to pay the $90,937, plus interest.

On Jan. 10, 2006, a lawyer hired by the city to do tax collections, Scott L. Hammer, filed a lien on the property with the Recorder of Deeds at Providence City Hall.

While it is hard to force payment of a debt after obtaining a court judgment, liens can be used as leverage. If an owner wants to sell or refinance a property, he or she must deal with any liens first.

That’s where the case stood when John Cicilline walked through the tax collector’s door in April 2006.

Ceprano said that he wouldn’t know Felix Garcia “if he walked through that door.” But Ceprano did know John Cicilline. The gregarious criminal-defense lawyer was “a pretty well-known guy,” says Ceprano, who spent 18 years as a criminal investigator for the IRS. Still, Ceprano had never dealt with him on a tax issue. Court records don’t show that Garcia used a lawyer when the city obtained the Superior Court judgment against him. And city land records show that Garcia used another lawyer for his real estate transactions.

According to Ceprano, John Cicilline explained that he was trying to help a client, Garcia, who needed the lien removed from his property so he could refinance it. Garcia wanted to borrow money to renovate and expand his business, and also promised to use some of the loan proceeds to settle his tax debt.

Ceprano says he told Cicilline that he would not be willing to remove the lien unless Garcia made a “substantial payment” to reduce his delinquency.

That’s when Cicilline proposed giving the city his own check. The city could hold the check as collateral until Garcia had refinanced, within 30 to 60 days, at which time Garcia would settle his tax debt.

Cicilline reassured him that things would be fine, Ceprano recalls, saying: “My brother’s the sitting mayor. Do you think I’d do anything to jeopardize the sitting mayor?”

Ceprano said he told John Cicilline that the proposal of his leaving a check as collateral was “a different ball of wax,” and that he would have to consult with a lawyer.

“I didn’t recall ever doing something like that and I wasn’t an attorney,” said Ceprano.

Ceprano said he and Cicilline called Scott Hammer, the lawyer who had obtained the court judgment against Garcia, and the three of them discussed it over the speakerphone.

“Scott questioned him on the advisability of doing something like that,” said Ceprano. “He asked him, ‘Why are you putting your money up so that this guy can get financing?’ John said that he was a client and a friend and that they had a relationship. He was trying to help him out.”

Thus reassured, Hammer and Ceprano agreed, according to Ceprano. Cicilline was, after all, “an attorney in good standing.”

Ceprano and Cicilline agreed on a figure of $75,000 –– based on the fact that Garcia owed about $50,000 in principal, plus $25,000 interest, shaving off about $15,000 more in interest and cutting the interest in half. Ceprano says that it’s not unusual, when taxpayers are willing to settle a tax debt, to shave off some of the interest to get the bulk of the money paid.”

On May 9, 2006, John Cicilline wrote the City of Providence a check for $75,000, from the office account of his law firm. The same day, Hammer filed paperwork with the Recorder of Deeds, discharging the lien.

AND THAT, Ceprano thought, would be the end of the story.

But when Hammer tried to deposit Cicilline’s check, he was told by the bank that the account had insufficient funds to cover it.

Because of attorney-client privilege, Hammer declined to discuss the matter unless he received permission from the city. Karen Southern, the mayor’s spokeswoman, initially told The Journal that the city would allow Hammer to talk to the newspaper, but then reversed course, saying that the administration wanted to maintain “a controlled environment” for the forensic audit.

Meanwhile, time went by and Ceprano said he wasn’t hearing from Cicilline about Garcia’s refinancing. John Cicilline wasn’t returning his or Hammer’s calls. And Ceprano had learned from Hammer that the check couldn’t be cashed.

Since it was the mayor’s brother who was involved, Ceprano said he spoke to Rita Murphy, the mayor’s director of neighborhood services, whom he knew from handling tax problems of City Council members’ constituents. He said that he felt more comfortable dealing with her because he didn’t know the mayor as well.

He also told his boss, then-Finance Director Prignano. One day, Prignano and Ceprano say, Prignano asked Ceprano for an update on how he’d made out with Murphy. The two of them went downstairs to Murphy’s office, where they also found Bizzacco, the mayor’s chief of staff.

“We said, ‘We need help here –– we’re having trouble getting a hold of John,’ ” said Prignano. “ ‘We need to get this money paid. This could be an embarrassing situation for the administration. Let’s get it resolved.’ ”

Bizzacco and Murphy said they’d try, but there was still no progress.

During a subsequent meeting with Bizzacco and Murphy, said Ceprano, he indicated that the city was going to try to redeposit Cicilline’s check, but Bizzacco said they should give Cicilline and Garcia more time.

In September 2006, as Prignano was preparing to retire from the city, there was still no progress, so he told John Simmons, the mayor’s director of administration.

“I told John that this had been going on for months and that it was something he had to put on his radar screen,” said Prignano.

Simmons recalls the conversation, and also that Bizzacco and Murphy were also there.

“I said, ‘If you can’t collect the tax, cash the check,’ ” said Simmons.

Simmons, Prignano and Ceprano said that they thought that John Cicilline may have given the city a second check after the first one was bad, but they can’t recall.

Simmons, who left the city early this year to become executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, said he lost track of what had happened.

Thinking the matter would be resolved, Simmons said, he didn’t mention it to the mayor.

Prignano said he was unaware, until news of the $75,000 check broke recently, that the taxes still hadn’t been paid.

But he doesn’t blame Ceprano, who he says did everything he could to collect the money.

“If I’m the tax collector, I can’t go out and pull the guy in by the ear and make him pay,” said Prignano.

Ceprano said that he ran into John Cicilline twice last winter, once at a local courthouse and again at a funeral, and brought up the $75,000 both times.

“I said, ‘John, you’ve got to get this taken care of, for the sake of your brother,’ ” said Ceprano.

John Cicilline would agree, said Ceprano, and make excuses and promises. He said Garcia “was difficult to get a hold of.”

Garcia did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Journal, including visits to his business.

In January 2007, John Cicilline was indicted on federal charges of shaking down drug dealers for $150,000 and corrupting the criminal-justice system. He pleaded guilty this spring, and, two weeks ago, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Meanwhile, the city never put the lien back on Garcia’s property. Last year, according to city land records, he borrowed about $190,000 on the property, none of which was used to pay his delinquent taxes.

OTHER TAX problems have plagued Garcia.

In February 2006, a few months before John Cicilline proposed the $75,000 check, the Internal Revenue Service filed a lien on Garcia’s property for $6,050 in unpaid taxes dating back to 2001, according to city records. He apparently paid the taxes, and the lien was lifted the next month.

In April of this year, the IRS filed three more liens on Garcia’s property, totaling $4,600 in unpaid taxes for 2006 and 2007, city records show.

Last Wednesday, Ceprano was interviewed by two state police detectives. Later that afternoon, he says, he was summoned to a meeting with the current finance director, Bruce Miller, and the city personnel director, Sybil Bailey, and informed that he was being placed on paid administrative leave for the duration of the forensic audit.

David Cicilline said that Ceprano was placed on leave because he was in charge of the tax collector’s office where the situation occurred. Even though the mayor’s own aides were also involved and the check was written by his brother, David Cicilline said that Ceprano “is responsible for that office.” The mayor said the review could also examine whether the situation arose from “systemic” problems.

Asked if he had had any concerns about Ceprano’s job performance prior to learning of the situation with his brother, the mayor said, “I’m not sure if I’m allowed to comment on personnel issues. I’ll check and get back to you.”

Ceprano, who went to work for the city in 2000, was escorted from City Hall, and told that he could not return without an escort.

Ceprano, a former Rhode Island Ethics Commission investigator and veteran IRS criminal investigator credited with cleaning up an office tainted by the federal corruption probe of former mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., was visibly upset the next day, during an interview with The Journal.

“I’ve been there for eight years, no problems,” he said. “I’m entrusted to collect $650 million a year in taxes. I have the keys to City Hall. I know the combinations to the safes. And I’m escorted out of the building? They treated me like some kind of criminal.

“Maybe this could have been handled a little more aggressively,” said Ceprano. “But I wasn’t calling the shots.”

mstanton@projo.com